Controversial penalty call at Palace

ONE problem of being a referee is knowing that a good number of the decisions you make, will please one side and upset the other. One football supporter once said, ‘it is a proven scientific fact that all the poor decisions are made against the teams that I support’.

Most complaints come from people who have scant knowledge of the laws of the game.

Knowledge of the laws is of course a prerequisite for referees and this goes to the very top.

If previous World Cups are followed, the selected FIFA referees will on arrival at Qatar, face a fitness test and an exam on the Laws.

If they fail either, they will be sent back home. Knowledge is however only part of many decisions; the other part is interpretation.

This is where the difference of opinion can come in, even among referees.

The players and management of Crystal Palace were upset by the penalty awarded to their opponents Liverpool, two Sundays ago. Before looking at the incident, it’s worth remembering that football is a contact sport.

That is to say that players often come into contact with opposing players without it being a foul.

Sometimes players may be running alongside one another when one goes down, purely because the other player has better body strength.

Sometimes players simply run into one another.

In this incident, Diogo Jota of Liverpool, was chasing a ball inside the Palace penalty area, when Palace goalkeeper, Vicente Guaita, came off his goal line and headed toward the ball which he never reached.

In fact he was on his knees when Jota ran into him. So Guaita didn’t bring Joto down, but Joto fell over him, which could perhaps be classified as impeding.

This is moving into the opponent’s path to obstruct, block, or force a slow down or change of direction, providing the ball is not within playing distance of either player. If there is no contact, it is an indirect free kick but direct if contact is made.

The television replay, which is presumably the same view the VAR had, seemed to indicate that Joto slightly changed direction to fall over Guaita.

So there you have it, did Guaita bring Joto down, did he impede him by moving into his path, did Joto deliberately fall over Guaita knowing he wouldn’t get to the ball. Or was it just two players colliding?

No wonder the referee took over four minutes and VAR before making a decision based on his interpretation.